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Doctor Who charity book goes ahead as PayPal backs down

Pre-order payments have been unfrozen following end of dispute

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2:27 PM, 14 March 2012

Behind the Sofa, the forthcoming book about celebrities' memories of Doctor Who, will now be published after an agreement was reached between its editor, Steve Berry, and online payments service PayPal.

On Monday, PayPal froze Berry's account, through which pre-orders for the book had been taken. But last night the company released this statement: "PayPal has apologised to Steve Berry for the way it handled payments for his book about Doctor Who, Behind the Sofa. It is working with Mr Berry to make sure funds are released as they are needed to pay the publisher and other suppliers.

"PayPal placed restrictions on Mr Berry’s account because the payments were received months before the book was available. This is in line with PayPal’s policy of protecting buyers in case they don’t receive goods that they have pre-ordered. But we should have explained things better and worked more quickly to find a sensible compromise to ensure the success of this very good cause."

Berry said: "I am delighted that PayPal have responded to my concerns about the handling of the account being used to fund the production of the Behind the Sofa book. We have now come to an amicable resolution and I look forward to publishing the book and fulfilling all the orders placed by generous Doctor Who fans."

The book, which includes contributions from Neil Gaiman, Charlie Brooker, Al Murray and Roland Rat, is scheduled for publication this summer. All profits go to Alzheimer's Research UK.